Initiator Creator - Initiator Creator - Issue 48

Initiator Creator - Issue #48

​By Saurabh Y. // 30 January 2021

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Developer

​Researchers propose LEAF, a frontend for developing audio classification algorithms - VentureBeat

A frontend that breaks down mel-filterbanks into a number of parts to create audio classification fashions ostensibly with minimal biases.

​Bringing Spacer GIFs Back, to handle spacing elements in React and CSS - Josh W Comeau

Blast from the past: “spacer” GIF images were used to get page layouts to be pixel perfect. Here’s an interesting idea around bringing those back.

​How to avoid layout shifts caused by web fonts - Simon Hearne

In this post Simon Hearne explored the surprisingly complex world of text rendering on the web and some techniques to remove FOUT while not incurring a CLS penalty.

Designer

​Measuring, defining and improving productivity: The design productivity blueprint - Spotify Design

The Design Productivity Blueprint helps people with a stake in design output ensure designers spend their time on high-value work.

I don’t know anyone using InVision Studio, and that’s too bad - UX Collective

What happens when hype exceeds expectations, and other lessons from a missed product opportunity.

​The 14 most important books for designers to read right now - Fast Company

Experts from IDEO, Adobe, SVA, HOK, Designer Fund, and more share book recommendations for designers who want to expand their horizons in 2021 and beyond.

Entrepreneur

​The Point of Product Analytics Is Revenue - Heap Analytics

From a business perspective, a “better” product is one that generates more revenue. That’s the point of analytics: to generate more revenue.

​Unpacking 5 of Atlassian’s Most Unconventional Company-Building Moves​ - First Round

There are plenty of young, flashy startups that seem to be overnight successes, bursting onto the scene, grabbing headlines and growing at a break-neck pace — Atlassian isn’t one of those stories. The company has been humming along for 18 years, quietly shifting the ground underneath traditional tech companies.

​The Top 10 Worst Pieces of SaaS Advice -Saastr

The advice and thinking that leads you to make important mistakes there really is no need to make.

​Your Product Backlog Has an Event Horizon That You Should Be Terrified Of - Medium

Given the nature of product development is an exciting, stressful and chaotic time, the ability to understand the concept of an Assumed Backlog and a Realised Backlog are two vastly different things. This take on backlog management could be worth trying because it similarly splits your backlog into two separate sections.

Marketer

​The Racecar Growth Framework - Reforge

If you’re building a consumer business, these are your only three choices for long-term, sustainable growth. But picking the right “lane” is just one of many decisions on the way to building a winning business. In this post, Reforge team expand this framework and provide more practical advice on developing your holistic growth strategy.

​A Quickstart Guide to Positioning - Lenny's Newsletter

Positioning your product in a market orients the customers and conveys a lot of valuable information. Your positioning context sets off a really powerful set of assumptions about who your product competes with, what features your product should have, who the product is intended for, and even things like what the product should cost.

​How to Go Viral: A Content Marketer’s Guide - Animalz

If content marketing is like pushing a boulder uphill, publishing a piece of viral content is the giddy moment when that boulder crests the hill and thunders down the other side, too fast for you to keep up. In this article Ryan Law, Director of Marketing at Animalz, has explained a handful of criteria that maximize the chances of an article going viral.

​I Asked 50+ Developers How They Buy Software. Here’s What I Learned - OpenView Partners

Anyone who has ever tried to sell software to developers probably learned pretty quickly that traditional B2B marketing tactics just plain don’t work. Developers are a tough crowd, their time is extremely valuable, and they’re allergic to anything that even remotely feels, tastes, or smells like marketing. Companies like Stripe, Snyk, and MongoDB are nailing it when it comes to marketing to developers. But what’s the secret sauce? To find out, Sam Richard from OpenView Partners, interviewed more than 50 developers in DevOps, DevSecOps, and generalist back-end roles about how they prefer to discover, try, and purchase software.

Interesting Read

​Information Foraging: A Theory of How People Navigate on the Web - NN/g

To decide whether to visit a page, people take into account how much relevant information they are likely to find on that page relative to the effort involved in extracting that info.

​2020 Domain Insights & Trends Report- Namecheap

Check out Namecheap's industry report and gain unique insights into the domain registration market.

Community Submissions

If you like to share a project or article with the rest of the readers then please DM me at @ICforpreneurs or hit reply

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​Every - A Writer Collective Covering Productivity, Strategy, & More​

A bundle of newsletters and podcasts for curious business people.

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Outro

🙏 Thank you for reading Initiator Creator issue #48

This issue is sponsored by Safetywing. Safetywing is global health insurance for remote workers and digital nomads.

If you value Initiator Creator, feel free to forward this copy to your friends. Suggestions or comments? Hit reply or DM me at @ICforpreneurs​

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